Summary
Chapter 1
After the end of the firefight with the Germans, it was “time for Sashka to take up his night post.” He had been on the front line for two months already, but still he had not been able to see “a live enemy up close.” The partner with whom Sashka must alternate was a completely useless one - “weak from hunger, and age is taking its toll.” And even during his legal rest, he had to check on his partner, who “didn’t sleep, but was nodding off.”
After the shelling, Sashka noticed the Fritz’s corpse and decided to take off his shoes to give to the company commander, who had soaked his feet in the wormwood. He would never take such a risk for himself, “but I feel sorry for the company commander.” Sashka crawled to the dead German and with great difficulty pulled off his warm felt boots.
As soon as Sashka decided to light a cigarette, he saw “a huge German rising from behind a hill.” He was followed by others who, like gray shadows, disappeared into the forest. At first, Sashka thought that “he won’t be able to stand it now, he’ll get up, scream” and run away, but he soon calmed down, pulled himself together and went to report to the company commander about what he saw. He ordered everyone to lie down behind the ravine and under no circumstances rise to their full height.
Soon a pleasant voice was heard offering to lay down arms in exchange for freedom and work. Then the company commander realized that this was a provocation of a small reconnaissance detachment, and gave the order to attack.
For the first time in his life, Sashka “came so close to the Germans, for some reason he did not feel fear.” Noticing the retreating figure of the German, he rushed after him and threw him to the ground. Soon a company commander came to his aid and ordered the captured German to be taken to headquarters.
On the way, the prisoner began to assure Sashka that he was not a fascist, but an ordinary soldier, but the guy did not pay any attention to him. On the way, he decided to take a little rest. The opponents sat down and lit a cigarette. At this moment, Sashka regretted that he did not know German at all - “I wish I could talk…”.
At headquarters, the chief was not there, and Sashka and the prisoner were sent to the battalion commander. After his girlfriend was killed in a shootout, he was completely out of sorts, and immediately ordered the young German to be shot.
From this news, “Sashka’s eyes darkened and everything around him swam,” because on the way he, as best he could, explained to the German that his life would be spared. Having difficulty containing his excitement, he explained to the battalion commander that he had given his word to the prisoner and could not break it. Only at the last moment the battalion commander changed his decision and ordered the German to be taken to brigade headquarters.
Chapter 2
When Sashka was filling a pot with water from a stream, he suddenly felt a red-hot pain in his hand and realized that he had been wounded. Seeing the blood, he “was afraid that it would all leave him without bandaging.” Gathering his strength, Sashka bandaged his hand as best he could and made it to his company. He handed over his machine gun to the company commander, said goodbye to his comrades, and went to the rear.
This road was incredibly dangerous: it was regularly shelled, and it was very lucky to pass it safely. “It took Sashka a long time to gain the courage” before setting off, but there was nothing to do - he had to go.
Like all his comrades in arms, Sashka was incredibly dirty, overgrown, and tattered. On the way, he began to dream about how for the first time in two months he would wash himself with hot water and soap, put on clean clothes... But he reined himself in just in time - “you can’t make any dreams yet, his position is too precarious.”
Sashka sat down to rest for a while, “but a groan somewhere very close startled” him. Not far from him, he noticed a soldier wounded in the chest. He quickly realized that the wound was fatal, but still promised to bring paramedics. Sashka managed to find the military unit and give the orderlies the coordinates of the wounded soldier - his conscience was clear.
Sashka continued on his way, and now “allowed himself to think about Zina, the sister from Sanrota.” These thoughts were surprisingly pleasant - Sashka had high hopes for a date with the girl he met during one of the bombings.
When Sashka finally got to the reception center for the wounded, Zina greeted him surprisingly coldly. During the examination and dressing, Sashka did not immediately understand that the senior lieutenant suspected him of having wounded himself in the arm. From a terrible insult, “blood gushed from his wounds, his eyes darkened.” They calmed him down and took him to the ward, where he quickly fell into a deep sleep.
Zina admitted to Sasha that the senior lieutenant was caring for her “in a good way, without nonsense,” and there was love between them.
Chapter 3
Sashka was discharged, and with him “two more wounded walkers” - Private Zhora and Lieutenant Volodya. They had a long road ahead to the village of Babino, where they could exchange their food certificates for food.
Having walked twelve miles, “they became completely exhausted.” All the way they, tired and hungry, dreamed only of how they would be well fed - this thought helped the fighters move forward.
They were very happy when “a village with several houses appeared behind the hill.” The soldiers were allowed to spend the night, but their owners could not feed them - they themselves had nothing to eat.
Soon the soldiers learned that there had been no checkpoint in Babino for a long time. In order not to die of hunger on the way to the evacuation hospital, the friends are forced to wander around the villages and ask local residents for food.
Having reached the evacuation hospital with difficulty, they were forced to wait another half a day before dinner to be fed - no one cared that their sales certificate had already been “unused for ten days.”
After a medical examination and dressing, it turned out that Lieutenant Volodka was the most seriously wounded, and the doctor strongly recommended that he stay in the hospital for a week, but he wanted to get to his mother in Moscow as soon as possible.
The friends are getting ready to hit the road again, but the journey to the capital is long, and they are forced to take a break in the hospital. During dinner, the wounded soldiers began to complain about the frankly meager food. Volodka was not afraid and directly expressed his opinion to the major, but he only began to “talk about temporary difficulties.”
At that moment, a plate of porridge flew past the major’s head, “and smashed into pieces with a ringing sound on the opposite wall” - the impulsive Volodka could not stand it. Sashka quickly realized that for such an act he could be demoted and sent to court, and therefore took the blame upon himself.
Sasha was lucky, and the case was quickly hushed up, and he was asked to leave the hospital. The farewell of friends was difficult - everyone understood that there was a war going on, and it was unlikely that fate would give them another meeting.
Once in Moscow, Sashka was surprised to see people not in dirty tunics with machine guns at their disposal, but in everyday civilian clothes. They seemed to him “as if from a completely different world, almost forgotten to him, and now by some miracle returned.” For a moment it even seemed to him that there was no war, and never had been. And it was at that moment that he realized how important his work was there at the front...
V.L. Kondratiev. "Sashka." Retelling with quotes from the text.
Chapter 1.
Sashka stepped into his next night outfit.
I remembered how during the day I saw a dead German on a hillock. And he has good boots. It was not Sashka himself who needed them, but the company commander , whose ones were very bad. But something stopped Sasha. I decided to crawl to the German in the morning.
Artillery cannonade and machine gun fire could be heard in the distance, but “Sashka was already used to it, he got over it.” Even before the conscription, living in the Far East, he worried with the others that the war would pass by, “they would not do anything heroic then.”
For two months at the front, Sashka did not see a living German near him, only tanks.
The night passed, he and his partner alternately rested in the hut. Suddenly the cannonade stopped, and Sashka decided to go get felt boots for the company commander (he was not wet through, he couldn’t dry them until spring). “I wouldn’t do it for myself... But I feel sorry for the company commander.” He crawled towards the German. He began to take off his felt boots. But then the shelling suddenly began. And suddenly he saw the Germans approaching from all sides. “...the fear that had gripped him at first somehow left him.” He fired a burst of machine gun fire and ran to his friends to warn them.
Suddenly the fire stopped. After some time, the soldiers were heard: “In the areas liberated by German troops, sowing begins. Freedom and work await you. Drop your weapons, let’s light some cigarettes... ” After some time, the Germans seemed to disappear into the ground. Apparently this was their intelligence. But after some time the Germans appeared again. Sashka saw one and decided to take the “tongue”. And he succeeded, and the company commander arrived in time.
Sashka was ordered to take the prisoner to headquarters. The German walked ahead, fearfully looking around. To which Sashka said: “What are you afraid of? We are not you. We don’t shoot prisoners.” He could have killed him there, during the chase, but he did. Sashka explained to the German why: “ Because we are people!” And you are fascists!
It’s a pity that Sashka didn’t know German, otherwise during a short rest he would have asked the German: “...how are the Germans with food, and how many cigarettes they get a day, how much rum, and why there are no interruptions with mines.” And he also asked the German: “ Tell me, what will you do with my partner, who was captured by you?” Shissen, perhaps? Or will you torture?
And suddenly Sashka realized what power he now had over this German : if he wanted, he would bring him to headquarters, but if he wanted, he would kill him. “ And Sashka somehow felt uneasy from the almost unlimited power that had fallen on him over another person.” And the German understood that his life was in Sashka’s hands. “Only the Germans don’t know what kind of person Sashka is, that he’s not the type to mock a prisoner and unarmed.”
Along the way we often came across dead Soviet soldiers, unburied. Sasha was ashamed of this in front of the German, “as if he himself was guilty of something.” Finally, we reached the headquarters. The captain began to ask where the German reconnaissance came from and ordered to show it on the map. Then the battalion commander looked at the German with hatred. The commander was overwhelmed with grief; his beloved woman, Katenka, had recently been killed. He ordered everyone to leave the dugout.
Sashka did not understand this behavior of the commander. Then, when the Germans rose from behind the ravine and marched towards them, he “ was ready to crush and destroy mercilessly.” But with the prisoner he “ could talk... like a human being, take cigarettes, smoke together...”.
The German said nothing during interrogation. Then the company commander gave an order to Sashka: “The Germans are expendable!” Sashka stood in bewilderment and said to the commander: “Comrade captain... I promised him...”. “Sashka saw a lot, a lot of death during this time - if you live to be a hundred years old, you won’t see so much - but the value of human life did not diminish from this in his mind.” But the captain forced the order to be carried out and ordered soldier Tolik to check execution. But Sashka asked him not to interfere with the execution of the order, he would kill the German himself. For this he gave Tolik a trophy hour. Then Sashka saw the lieutenant and told him everything. He asked to cancel the order, but he didn’t.
Sashka led the German to be shot, walking with him slowly, why rush. And he himself thinks: “ Sashka would shoot these arsonists mercilessly if they were caught, but what about an unarmed person? How?…".
“For the first time in his entire service in the army, during the months at the front, Sashka’s habit of obeying unquestioningly and terrible doubt about the justice and necessity of what he was ordered collided in desperate contradiction. And there is a third thing that is intertwined with the rest: he cannot kill a defenseless person. It can’t, that’s all!”
Suddenly Sashka heard someone’s steps: it was the battalion commander and Tolik. But Sashka firmly decided: “... I won’t, I won’t! Let the battalion commander himself shoot. Or he will order his Tolik. I won’t!”
“...and looked at the battalion commander without insolence, but firmly, although his heart was pounding like mad, echoing with pain in his temples.” Then the battalion commander turned his eyes away and began to leave, giving the order to take the German to headquarters.
Chapter 2.
Sasha was wounded. Many of the fighters envied him: he fought back, he was lucky, he got off easy, because he was only wounded in the arm. Walking to the medical unit, on the way he heard the groan of a soldier wounded in the chest. Leaving him where he was, he ran to the medical unit, where his wound was treated. Then he returned with the soldiers for the wounded man, pleased that he had kept his word given to him, and went to the rear. He passed by the place where he handed over the captured German to his superiors.
Finally Sashka reached his destination. The doctor began to examine him. Sashka did not immediately understand that the man from the headquarters, who was sitting right there, doubted whether he was wounded, maybe he himself injured his arm in order to rest in the hospital. This outraged Sasha. But he was calmed down by Zinka, who Sashka really liked. She also said that the staff officer invited me to an evening that would be held at the headquarters on the occasion of May 1st. Sashka couldn’t believe it. How can you celebrate when so many people have died !” You can’t have fun when all the fields are ours!” Zina brought him to the room. Then they went for a walk on the banks of the Volga, kissed, realizing “ that this is the last in their lives, that the planes are about to return again and what will happen is unknown.” I returned to the ward and could not sleep. Suddenly I realized that Zina was not there. It turns out that she went to the headquarters to celebrate. Sashka went to the hut where Zina was, heard the sounds of an accordion and songs. The gramophone started playing and people started dancing. He saw Zina with the lieutenant. Returning to the ward, he did not condemn her (“ ...just a war... And he has no grudge against her...”).
Chapter 3.
Sashka and two other walking wounded were sent to the medical unit. No food was given; it could only be obtained in Babin. And it’s 20 miles to get to it. But they were sure that along the way someone would feed them, “ surely they didn’t earn potatoes and a piece of bread through their military work.” However, more than half the way was covered , and “no one showed interest in them, no one asked even once: where are you coming from, where you were wounded, were there big battles? " The soldiers realized that hundreds of them pass through every day, everyone got used to “that there is hunger and hardship in the rear, and that no one looks at them as heroes.” They remembered how solemnly they were escorted to the front, and now, when they “blood” for the country, “no one claps their hands, no one is touched by this, no one puts moonshine in their way.”
No one allowed them to spend the night either, they say, the house was full, there were already a lot of people (they were deceiving them). Yes, and Sashka was ashamed to ask, “ I understood how much these Rzhev villages had to endure...”.
One of the fellow travelers was always happy about any beauty, “ everything about him is beautiful: we went to a stream - beauty, what a clearing - beauty, the forest in the distance turned blue - also beauty!”
Finally, she let the woman spend the night, even fed her a little, although her children were half-starved.
We reached Babino, but there was no checkpoint there. The hungry moved to the evacuation hospital. They were given a little ride along the way. Suddenly there was an explosion ahead. One of the fellow travelers, Zhora, was killed, and at his head there was a blossoming snowdrop. One of the soldiers said: “Look, guys, what a flower! Beauty!" Suddenly Sashka involuntarily crossed himself, although he had never done this before. “... the fingers involuntarily formed a pinch and went to the forehead, although Sashka, of course, was not a believer .”
We reached Luzhkov, where the hospital was located. They washed themselves, bandaged them and sent them to Moscow for further treatment.
Sashka reached Moscow.
“ Did he think, wondered there, near those Rzhev villages, in front of that rusty field on which he ran and crawled, on which he died more than once, did he think, wondered that he would remain alive and that he would see Moscow?” Everything here seemed like a miracle to him: trams, people rushing to work, holding not machine guns in their hands, but ordinary newspapers, briefcases, parcels.
«Well, there’s no need to talk about women and girls - they click with the heels of their shoes, some in a skirt and blouse, some in a colorful dress, and they seem elegant, festive to Sashka, as if from a completely different world, almost forgotten for him, but now somehow... then miraculously returned.
And all this is strange and wonderful to him - as if there was no war at all!”
«But the more strikingly this calm, almost peaceful Moscow differed from what was there, the clearer and more tangible the connection became for him between what he did there and what he saw here, the more significant his work there seemed to him ... "
And Sashka walked around Moscow with his head held high, not embarrassed by his clothes and unshaven face.
Retold by: Melnikova Vera Aleksandrovna.
